The Unapologetic Street: Celebrating and Uplifting Femininity and Queer Art in the Streets
The Unapologetic Street Series is a series of bright pastel-coloured posters pasted on the streets of America. As the series’ name suggests, these posters are unapologetic and loud as they confront their audiences’ consciousness-heavy discourse. The text-based posters advocate for heavy issues such as queer and trans children's rights, Black and Brown femme empowerment, and education for immigrant children. These are issues are close to Salvador-born and U.S.-based queer artist Johanna Toruño’s heart.
Despite the series’ heavy content, Toruño's use of traditionally feminine aesthetics—floral with a lot of pink and pastels—stands out in the streets where they are displayed. These works distinguish themselves from the more masculine-presenting street art, making people stop in their tracks to ponder the gender-empowering messages they are advocating. Here, The Unapologetic Street Series showcases the strength of being “soft” and femme-presenting, reflecting the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal of Gender Equality.
The Unapologetic Street Series was started by Johanna Toruño in New York City in 2016. Since then, Toruño has covered the streets of Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles with her work, moving her practice as she herself has moved across the country.
The Unapologetic Street Series gives its viewers a chance to encounter street art that is unapologetically feminine. Toruño uses pastel colours and different shades of pink that have been traditionally associated with femininity. She also employs flowers in her designs and uses them to decorate her posters, transforming the two-dimensional posters into three-dimensional installations, which is something her viewers can see in her installation of Protect & Defend Trans Children & People Year Round.
Toruño also frequently works with grass-roots community organizations that make a real impact for the people who walk the streets she pastes her works in. Take, for example,her January 2024 collaboration with Plan C. Through this project she used her posters to share Plan C’s work, an organization that works to make abortion pills available by mail in all 50 states in the United States.
As of November 2023, The Guardian has tracked that abortion is nearly completely banned in 14 states, making the work of organizations like Plan C crucial for giving women their right to choose what’s best for their body and for themselves.
Toruño also makes sure that she stays faithful to the community she is rooted in by using The Unapologetic Street Series to give current issues from different marginalized communities a platform. Her recent series of valentines for Palestine further proves her commitment for this cause. She shares them as free printables, available on her website, including colouring pages of her pieces.
At the end of the day, "I hope that when folks encounter my work on the street or online, it poses a question or a conversation or a feeling that inspires them to reimagine the world in a way that is equitable, peaceful, joyful, that centers on rest and a thriving community," shared Toruño in an interview with the IM Firenze Digest.